Weekly Message from Our Director and CEO, Stephan Jost

Tuesday May 22, 2018

Hello Everyone,

At the Town Hall meeting on Tuesday, Herman Lo, Director, Visitor Experience, announced our annual attendance for 2017/18 – 1,006,618! That’s a lot of people and the highest number in decades. Everyone played a role in welcoming these visitors to the museum last year. I’m pleased that we achieved this by focusing on great diverse content and new audiences. In the last quarter of the year, 29% of our visitors were Young Cosmos.

I am grateful to Dr. Johnnetta Cole for sharing her thoughts on diversity and inclusion at the Town Hall. I encourage everyone to think about ways to continue this conversation. It’s not always an easy one and we will make mistakes but the point is we all have to work through it together to make our museum more inclusive. One staff member pointed out to me after the talk that, when we spoke about gender and race, there was almost no mention of class. When thinking about the many issues that impact Diversity, Equity, Accessibility and Inclusion, often topics related to race, gender and class are central.

At Dr. Cole’s session with Leadership Team, she suggested that everyone read ferociously on the topic. For your reference, here is a thought paper co-authored by Dr. Cole and Natanya Khashan (which includes a list of resources at the end), and 4 case studies from the Mellon Foundation. Also included is a recent article from Canadian Art.

Tonight and tomorrow night – as well as next Thursday, Friday and Saturday – the Kusama exhibition is open till midnight! Thank you to those who are working extended hours during the final days of this extraordinary show. Don’t forget about the staff and volunteer boxed lunch next Wednesday, May 23. There are two options: 12-2pm or 4-6pm. Please join us! Yayoi Kusama: Infinitify Mirrors has been a phenomenal success and I’m truly grateful to everyone for all of your hard work.

Enjoy the weekend,

Stephan